Bulletin-board.



A. S. HIOKBY.

BULLETIN BOARD.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 10, 1911.

1,1 28,249,. Patented Feb. 9, 1915.

3 SHEETSSHBET 1.

rHE NORRIS PETERS CO. PHOTD-LITHO.. WASHINGTON. D. C

A. S. HIGKEY. BULLETIN BOARD.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 10, 1911 Patented Feb. 9, 1915.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

THE NORRIS PETERS C0, F'HOTD-LITHO.. WASHINGTON, D. c.

A. S. HICKEY.

BULLETIN BOARD. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 10, 1911.

Patented Feb. 9, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

I 1 771 622 for.

firfemas $.Hz7cky ivw I YIi znesses,

g-z/zwo THE NORRIS PETERS 60., PHOTO-LITHQ, wASHINGrON. D. C.

ARTEMAS S. HIGKEY, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

BULLETIN-BOARD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 9, 1915.

Application filed June 10, 1911. Serial N 0. 632,509.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, ARTEMAS S. HICKEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Bulletin-Board, of which the following is a specification.

It frequently occurs that great inconvenience is experienced by persons having an appointment at a particular place as a railway waiting-room, by reason that one with whom the appointment is made fails to reach the appointed place from some cause as by missing a train or by the delay of a train, and it is very desirable that the person thus disappointed should have some means for communicating with the other party.

An object of this invention is to provide a cheap, simple, convenient, easily constructed and conveniently operated appliance of this kind which can be accommodated in a minimum amount of space, where readily accessible to the public, and in which a communication may be placed by the disappointed person and made accessible to the other party when he reaches the appointed place.

This invention includes the novel bulletin board and parts and constructions of parts which go to make up the same.

The invention may be carried out in various ways. a

The invention will be illustrated as applied in connection with coin operated mechanism, but no claim is made herein to such mechanism or to any structure of the apparatus which would be useful only as a coin-controlled device.

This invention is pioneer in that it brings into the art a wholly new and novel appliance, viz., a bulletin board having the usual characteristic thinness common to bulletin boards, so that it is not objectionable as taking up space when installed in waitingrooms and other public places and which affords individuals the opportunity of private communication with others.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention.

Figure 1 is a broken front elevation of a bulletin board constructed in accordance with the invention, parts of two units being shown. The lower part of one unit is shown in perspective and the upper part of said unit is in elevation. Parts are broken to sight.

contract the view and parts are broken away to expose parts that would otherwise be bidden. Fig. 2 is a vertical fragmental section on enlarged scale from irregular line w a2 Fig. 1, looking toward the left. Fig. 8 is a fragmental plan section on line w -w Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 4 is afragmental plan section on irregular line 0c*w Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a fragmental plan section from irregular Fig. 1, a coin being shown in position. Fig. 6 is a reduced; plan of the base from which the message space unit has been removed. Fig. is an enlarged detail section on line as, Fig. 1, through one of the message spaces showing the message door open. Fig. 7 is a fragmental plan detail in section on line m, Fig. 7. Fig. 8 isan enlarged vertical sectional detailon line a Fig. 1. Fig. 9 is a fragmental elevation of the bulletinboard from the right side of Fig. 1, showing two message space units disconnected from each other and from the base. Fig. 10 is an'elevation analogous to Fig. 9, showing the left side of the same message space units andbase. Fig. 11 is a fragmental view representing the bottom of a message space unit or of the crown. Fig. 12 is a plan view ofthe same message space unit. Fig. 13 is a view of the inner side of the message door. Fig. 14 is an enlarged vertical sectional detail on line ca -20 Fi 13. Fig. 15 shows a crown stamping,Fig.

16 a message space and lock unit stamping, Fig. 17 a base top stamping, Fig. 18 a chute stamping, Fig. 19 a lock face stamping, Fig. 20 a base partition stamping, Fig. 21 a message door stamping, Fig. 22 a base body stamping, Fig. 23 a drawer body stamping, Figs. 24: and 25 cross partition stampings for the coin drawer; Fig. 26 is a drawer partition stamping.

In the drawings Figs. 2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, may be regarded as drawn to full size. Figs. 1, 13 and 21 to half size; Figs. 3 and 4 to scale between the scales of Figs. 1 and 2; Fig. 6 and F igs.-.15 to 26 inclusive, excepting Fig. 21, as drawn to one-fourth size; and Figs. 7, 7 and 8 as drawn to double size. Arrows on the section lines of the different views indicate the direction of The base 1 is provided with a top 2 hav ing prepaying slots 3 adapted to receive coins and arranged above compartments 4:, respectively, in a drawer 5 which is mounted in the. base; there being in such drawer one compartment to each slot. The drawer is also provided with a coin box 6 at one side of the compartments 4, and the base top 2 is provided with an opening 7 beneath which is an open receptacle 8 to receive cards of the proprietor or of any advertiser. Near the rear edge of the base top 2 there are provided a number of slits 9 to receive fastening tongues 10 on the bottom of the upright message space units 11 and each of said message space units comprises a back plate 12, a channeled chute plate 13 and a lock face plate 14. The chute plate 13 is fastened by any suitable means as solder to the back plate 12 and said back plate is provided with bottom, top and side wings 15, 16, 17 and 1-8, bent at right angles thereto, and provided with complementary fastening means which may be of any suitable interlocking form and herein are shown as slits 9 and tongues 10 corresponding to the slits 9 and tongues 10 by which the message space unit is fastened to the base. The wings 15, 16, 17, 18 are bent forward to form the bottom, top and sides of the message space unit.

The back plate 12 is provided with bent out knuckle tongues 20 arranged in rows parallel with the ends of the back plate to form hinge knuckles and is also provided with groups of tongues 21, 22, 23, 24. The coin outlet slots 24 are formed by bending out the tongues 24. The common coin chute strip 13 is equal in length to the back plate 12 and is bent at its edges to form fastening flanges 25 and also side walls 26 of the coin chute 13 that communicates with 'all the pay slots 24 and leads down behind the back plate 12 and opens through a chute slot at in the base top 2 into the coin-box 6 of the drawer. The flanges 25 may be fastened to the back plate 12 by any means as by solder, not shown.

The parallel tongues 21, 22 which are arranged aslant in one direction and the bottom tongue 23 that is arranged aslant in the other direction together form a coin-way b terminating immediately above the outlet tongue 24 which slopes downward to the lower horizontal margin of the outlet slot 24' to direct coins from the coin-way through the outlet 24 into the chute 13. The lock face plate 14 is designed to inclose the groups of tongues 21, 22, 23, 24; and has wings 28, 29, 30, 31 that are bent at right angles to the body 32 of said plate which is provided with pay slots 33 arranged in parallelism with the top and bottom of the plate to open into the upper ends of the coin-way b. The face plate 14 is provided along the edges of its wings 28, 29 with tangs 34 extending through holes 35 punched in the back plate 12 and there bent over, thus fixing the face plate to the back plate. The tongues 21, 22, 23 are arranged in sets are practically alined with the hinge knuckle tongues 20 to which hollow doors 36 are hinged by knuckles 37 stamped and bent from the lower edges of said doors; there being pins 38 inserted through the knuckles 20 and 37 so as to open outwardly and down- Wardly and to readily receive a message 0. Said doors are of suflicient width and length to form when closed a complete cover for the back plate from top to bottom and from one side wall 18 of the back plate to the inner side wall 29 of the front plate.

One end of each door 36 is provided with a bolt seat 39 and with a notch 40, and the lock face plate wing 29 is provided with corresponding seats and notches 39, 40. Locking mechanism is provided adjacent each of the message spaces 41 covered by the doors and each locking mechanism comprises a dog 42 pivoted to'the front side of the back plate 12 by a rivet 43 riveted in a hole 43. The dog is provided with a detent 44 to enter the bolt-seat 39. The outer face of the detent 44 is beveled so that when the beaded edge 45 of the door strikes the detent in the operation of closing, it will slidesaid detent back to allow the door to close. A spring 46 yieldingly holds the dog 42 in looking position.

The pivot 43 of the dog is practically on a level with the lower end of the bottom chute tongue 23 and a releasing arm 42 ex tending from the lower end of the dog pro-- jects downwardly aslant toward a vertical drawn from the lower end of the tongue 23 and is spaced apart from the lower end of the tongue 23 a little more than a coin width so that a coin 47 rolling down from the tongue 23 will contact with the lower end of the releasing arm 42 which is held by the dog spring 46 to resist the force exerted by the coin. The unlocking lever 48 is pivoted to the back plate by the pivot 49 riveted in a hole 49 and has a handle 50 working through a slot 51 in the face plate. Said handle is normally depressed by a spring 52 that yieldingly holds down on a stop 52 the unlocking lever 48 which is provided at the end opposite the handle with a shoulder 53 that extends above the level of the outlet tongue '24 to form in connection with the releasing arm 42 a support for the actuating coin 47, which coin forms a connection between the lever mechanism 48 and the releasing arm 42; and consequently between the hand-operated mechanism 48 and the door-locking mechanism 44. By raising the handle 50 the shoulder 53 moves the coin 47 and the releasing arm 42 sufliciently to withdraw the detent 44 from the bolt-seat 39 in the door, whereupon the door may be pulled open by the handle 53 and the message held by means of such door will then 7 v I 'be released. respectively above the outlet tongues 24 that The detent 44"when withdrawn from the bolt seat 39 may be withheld by a stop 54 which may be a piece of spring wire bent forwardly at one end to engage the dog 42 beneath the detent and soldered or otherwise fastened at its other end to the back plate 12, and the dog-engaging end of said spring 54 may be thrown out of commission by the pressure of the beaded edge 45 of the door when the door strikes the spring in the operation of closing the door, either by hand or by the pressure of a helical spring 55 which is wound around the pin 38 centrally of the door between adjacent hinge knuckle tongues 37, the opposite ends of the springs pressing against the back plate 12 and bottom edge of the door 36 respectively. When the spring 55 is under the tension effected by opening the door it is of suflicient strength to slam the door shut so as to overcome the comparatively slight resistance of the spring stop 54. whenever the open door is released.

The crown 56 serves as a top finish for each unit and also may have a general announcement provided at its top in a space 57 which may be marked with an inscription 58 as the striking words Ask Hannah to attract attention to the bulletin board. Said crown may also be provided with stamped out spaces 59, 60 and 61 and with retainers 62 to receive and expose to view cards 63, 64 and 65 which may contain information such as the telephone number, and the number of the board, not shown, and the business advertisement of the person responsible for the board.

In practical use each unit in the bulletin board will comprise a base and a crown with one or more message space units 11 between and fastened thereto, all of the parts of each unit being fastened together by the tongues 10 inserted into the slots 9. The drawer 5 is provided with a lock 66 the key to which will be held by the person responsible for the bulletin board and who may be the proprietor or the renter' of the bulletin board.

The message door 36 is provided with a recess 67 which is punched out to form a sight opening 68 and a transparent pane 69 of glass or other suitable material is seated in the recess and is retained therein by tangs 70 that are pressed out of the body of the door and that'are bent upon the trans parent pane after the pane has been inserted in the recess. Inside the door 36 the message retaining spring 71 is provided to press the message as at 0 against the inner surface of the pane 69.

The bulletin boards may be rented to the proprietors of news stands, cigar stands or to other persons who may be in general attendance at the places where the bulletin boards are to be used. Any person desiring to use the board may drop a coin into the pay slot 33 from which the coin passes to enabling the user to open the message door 36. When the detent 4A: is thus retracted 'the spring stop 5 1 holds it out of commission; .and when the handle 50 is released the spring 52 returns the lever -18 to normal position and the coin drops from between the arm and the lever and passes through the outlet slot 24: into the coin chute 13 and thus down into the receptacle 6 of the drawer; and the person wishing to leave the message will inscribe the name of the person addressed on one side of the message and will insert the message into the hollow door 36 between the transparent pane 69 and the spring 71 and will then shut the door, whereupon'the stop 54 will be pushed away'from in front of the dog 42, thus allowing the detent 4A to again enter its seat 39 in the door, thus locking the door which can then only be opened by the repetition of inserting another coin as hereinbefore described. I

The bulletin board may carry an announcement, not shown, that the message is entitled to remain for a subsequent time and each of the pay slots 33 is provided with a designating number 72 corresponding with a designating number 73 adjacent the prepaying slots 3 in the base top 2 and it may further be announced on the card 64 or elsewhere that by placing additional coins in the prepaying slot having the same number as the-pay slot used the message will be entitled to remain as many additional periods of time depending upon the number of coins inserted into the prepaying slot.

The person authorized to open the drawer will, at the stated times, remove the coins from the drawer, and will note the prepayments, if any, that have been made for the undelivered messages and will remove only the messages that are not prepaid by coins in the appropriate compartment.

By the construction shown, the person desiring to establish a message service at any station may start the business in a small way by means of one base and one space unit and crown fastened thereon, and as the business increases, he may remove the crown and add one or more space units above the one first installed, and may then replace the crown; and as the business still further increases, he may add one or more units to either or both sides of the first unit. and since the device is made as set forth of sheet metal, the device occupies a minimum space and projects only a small distance from the wall or other support to which it is attached.

I claim A bulletin board comprising an upright back plate, a plurality of transparent doors In testimony whereof I have hereunto set independently hinged to the back plate my hand at Los Angeles, California, this forming receptacles between the plate and 24th day of May 1911.

the doors when closed, mechanism for lock- A. S. HICKEY. ing the doors automatically When they are In presence ofclosed, and controlling means for unlocking JAMES R. ToWNsENn,

each door. L. BELLE Bron.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

